Worcester to pick up $200,000 tab for president's visit

And the federal government doesn't provide any reimbursement for the substantial municipal costs associated with the commander in chief dropping by for an afternoon.

The dozens of cities and towns across America that have hosted President Barack Obama or his predecessor, George W. Bush, in recent years all were expected to pick up the tab for any necessary increase in police staffing. It doesn't matter if the president is a Democrat or Republican or whether the trip is an official state visit or campaign event.

City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. estimates the cost to the city for Mr. Obama's visit will total roughly $200,000, including police overtime and unspecified equipment costs at the DCU Center.

The city-owned facility is Mr. Obama's destination, where he will deliver a 4 p.m. speech to the 307 seniors graduating from Worcester Technical High School.

Police Chief Gary J. Gemme has put the police staffing cost for the president's visit at about $100,000 for more the more than 250 officers who will be on duty around the DCU Center and along the motorcade route from Worcester Regional Airport.

Air Force One will land at 3:20 p.m. and the presidential motorcade will take Pleasant Street east to Newton Square. From there Mr. Obama will travel Highland Street into Lincoln Square.

The last portion of the route involves a quick trip on Major Taylor Boulevard until the motorcade reaches the DCU Center.

The motorcade route will be shut to regular traffic at 2:30 p.m. and stay closed until sometime around 6 p.m.

Mr. Obama is scheduled to leave Worcester via helicopter to attend a 7 p.m. fundraiser in Weston, according to City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. The White House said Air Force One will depart for Washington from Worcester Regional Airport at 8:20 p.m.

The road closures in Worcester will cause some fans attending four high school baseball and softball state tournament games (3, 4, 5 and 7 p.m.) at Worcester State University to take alternate routes. While Chandler Street will be open, it will be cut off from some parts of the city.

Cross traffic will be allowed once the president reaches the DCU Center. There are more than five major intersections on the route, including Park Avenue.

The WRTA told riders that the president's visit would cause delays to bus routes.

"We're just not going to allow people to travel the presidential motorcade route once the president arrives," Chief Gemme said. "Our objective is we want the public to know and people aware of the times the motorcade route is going to be closed. We are trying to minimize the inconvenience to the public and at the same time provide the security requested by the Secret Service."

The cost for police resources involved in Mr. Obama's visit is about $100,000 — a cost that is being absorbed by the Police Department.

"The presidential visit puts the Worcester community in the national spotlight. We believe that the presidential visit is a positive for the city," Chief Gemme said.

"It is certainly a strong recognition of the quality education taking place at the Worcester Technical High School."

Worcester's estimated police staffing and cost figures are higher than those reported by officials in Nashville, where Mr. Obama visited a high school for a policy speech in January.

Nashville Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said the official White House visit, which included a presidential motorcade from Nashville's airport to the venue for the speech, required 130 officers at a cost of $26,132 for on-duty police and $2,542 for overtime.

When Mr. Obama visited a high school in Durham, N.H., two years ago for a campaign speech, Town Administrator Todd Selig inadvertently touched off a national partisan controversy by seeking reimbursement for the town's expenses from the Obama for America campaign.

Mr. Selig said the town was honored to host the president and wouldn't have sought any money for an official state visit, but town leaders considered the anticipated $20,000 to $30,000 bill for security and other expenses associated with a political event was too steep for a small town to foot on its own.

"We raised the cost issue with the campaign, and we raised it forcefully, but our request was flatly denied. They would not reimburse us anything," Mr. Selig said.

The town had been struggling at the time to fund a part-time parks department position that would have cost roughly the same as the anticipated security costs for the president's campaign stop, he said.

"A resident who chose to remain anonymous ultimately came forward and donated the cost, which ended up around $13,000. The police did a great job managing their resources, and the event didn't last as long as we thought," Mr. Selig said.

He drew a distinction between a campaign stop and an official state visit like the one scheduled for Worcester,

"If it had been an official state visit for us, there would have been no questions asked. That would be our responsibility as Americans to help ensure the safety of the president," he said.

"Our issue here was that it was a pure campaign event."

A spokesman for Mr. Augustus asserted that the costs for the president's visit for Worcester taxpayers would be more than outweighed by the marketing value of having the commander in chief give a speech here.

But Mr. Selig isn't so sure that Worcester can expect any real economic benefit from having the president in the city for a few hours and the city in national headlines for one news cycle.

"I did ask around our downtown, and our restaurants said they were busier than usual the day the president was here. It created an opportunity for them to capture some of the people here for the event," Mr. Selig said.

"But there was no sustained economic impact."

Contact reporter Thomas Caywood at tcaywood@telegram.com or follow on Twitter @ThomasCaywoodScott J. Croteau of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.